The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunenedia.net

THE attorney representing the late Claudia Bethel, the woman at the centre of a rape allegation against an immigration officer, yesterday criticised the government for questioning his client’s credibility in her civil suit, despite the Crown prosecuting the officer on her behalf during his criminal trial.

Fred Smith, QC, told Justice Indra Charles that he would file an amendment seeking “additional aggravated damages” against the Crown for attempting to question Mrs Bethel’s reliability as a witness.

He did this after putting his client’s death on the record and informing the court that her estate intended to continue their legal action against Norman Bastian and the government despite her recent death.

In late 2014, Mr Bastian, then a senior officer at the Department of Immigration, was accused of sexually assaulting Mrs Bethel. At the time, it was reported he took her to his home and allegedly forced her to have sexual intercourse with him against her wishes.

Mrs Bethel later launched a civil suit against the government after her rape case was tossed out of court.

 Mr Bastian was never convicted of the offence and has denied the rape, saying the sex was consensual.

 In May, Mrs Bethel died of COVID-19 complications at Princess Margaret Hospital a day after giving birth to her fourth child.

 Wayne Munroe, QC, represents Mr Bastian in the proceedings, while the Attorney General, the Minister of Immigration, Director of Immigration and Commissioner of Police, who are listed as the first through fourth defendants in the action, are all represented by Crown attorney Kayla Green-Smith.

Yesterday, she told Justice Charles that Mr Smith failed to provide copies of Mrs Bethel and her husband’s passports despite a request from the court during a previous sitting.

 “It’s clear the court raised the issue requesting copies of the passports and we also maintain that this issue certainly goes to their credibility, which we would note from our submission is very central to the case for the first through fourth defendants,” she stated.

 In response, Mr Smith said he would take the request for the documents “under advisement” and consider whether or not it was in his client’s interest to produce them. He also said he believed it was an “unbelievable conflict” on the part of the Department of Public Prosecutions to take such a position on the matter.

 “It is absolutely incredible that the Office of the Attorney General who prepared a case, laid charges against Mr Bastian and prosecuted in the belief that Mrs Claudia Bethel was telling the truth against Mr Bastian in a criminal context where the standard of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt, it is incredible that the same office can now be appearing against Mrs Claudia Bethel and trying to persuade the court that she’s a discredited, untrustworthy, lying witness,” he argued.

 “There are two major issues remaining: was Mrs Bethel lawfully arrested and detained or not (and) that mostly (concerns) the first through fourth defendants. And then secondly: did Mrs Bastian assault her and rape her. Now the issue of credibility may go to the issue of whether Mr Bastian did or did not rape her (because) as she says, it his word against her word. But it is no part of the (government’s) case to be discrediting Mrs Bethel in relation to allegations of rape when they represented her to try and prove a rape case against Mr Bastian.”

 In response, Mrs Green-Smith said she did not want Mr Smith to “twist her words” or try to change what she relayed to the court.

 “I did not say that the passport is central to our case,” she asserted. “I said that credibility is central to our case and we maintain that. (Mrs Bethel) came and she lodged her complaint to the police, they investigated the complaint and the proper case was laid before the court in which she was found to be an unreliable witness in those proceedings. She now sues the government and we rightfully so did not represent Mr Bastian in these proceedings and we maintain that Mrs Bethel is an unreliable witness.”

 Yesterday, Mr Smith and Mrs Green-Smith indicated they had both filed and served the closing submissions of their respective clients as ordered by the court. However, Mr Munroe’s chambers indicated they had yet to do so and requested a short-term adjournment in the matter.

 In response, Justice Charles said she was disappointed that no submissions had been filed on behalf of Mr Bastian and noted that she had no more space available in her court calendar for the remainder of the year.

 Still, she gave Mr Bastian’s attorneys until September 14 to file and serve their submissions. She said if they failed to do so by that time, the court would proceed with the submissions of the other parties.